RTI reporting has been in use for over 10 years –

With RTI, HMRC require that they receive the payroll information when, or before payments are made to the employees.  This applies to salary advances and also when employees are paid early, for example due to Bank Holidays.

Late Filing Penalties apply unless there is a ‘reasonable excuse’ or the return is filed without reasonable delay after the excuse has ended.

In order to avoid late filing penalties reports should be filed on time each month.  Implementing clear procedures and regularly checking whether there are new employees or leavers will avoid errors which could lead to late filing and thus late filing penalties.

Employers and pension providers use RTI to send HMRC a ‘Full Payment Submission’ (FPS) detailing tax, NICs and other deductions when or before the payroll is run. The information needed to complete the FPS is collected by the payroll software and sent to HMRC automatically online.

If no payments are made within a pay period, an EPS should be submitted to indicate ‘No payment due as no employees or subcontractors paid in this pay period’.

HMRC state that if you are a small employer (ie with nine or fewer employees) you can use the free HMRC Basic PAYE Tools package which will allow you to submit the data to HMRC when you complete the payroll. However this software has limited functionality and employers may wish to consider using third party software or a payroll agent.

For information on the services we provide for payroll, including RTI submissions, and to see how we could help you with your payroll requirements please contact us for a free quote.